An unresponsive private plane has
crashed in the sea off Jamaica,
officials on the island have said.
The Jamaican Defence Force said the
plane went down about 14 miles
(22km) north-east of Port Antonio.
The US had earlier scrambled two
F-15 fighter jets when the plane failed
to respond to air traffic control.
The two people known to be on board
have been named as Larry Glazer, a
property developer from Rochester,
New York, and his wife Jane.
The couple were both licensed pilots.
The plane’s pilot had indicated there
was a problem and twice asked to
descend to a lower altitude before
permission was granted, according to
a recording of the radio conversation
with US traffic controllers.
Contact with the plane was lost a
short time later.
Maj Basil Jarrett of the Jamaican
Defence Force told reporters that an oil
slick had been spotted about 14 miles
north-east of the coastal town of Port
Antonio but there was no sign yet of
any wreckage.
He said search and rescue teams were
scouring the waters for possible
survivors.
As darkness fell, Jamaica suspended
the search until first light on Saturday.
The plane, a Socata TBM-700 built in
2014, took off from Rochester at 08:26
(12:26 GMT) en route to Naples,
Florida.
The North American Aerospace
Defence Command (Norad) was
alerted to the unresponsive plane
about an hour into its flight and sent
two fighter jets to monitor it.
A spokesman said it was not possible
for the fighter pilots to see inside the
plane as the windows were frosted or
fogged over.
A tweet from Norad suggested the
pilot or pilots could have been be
unresponsive due to “possible
hypoxia” – oxygen deprivation.
On a recording made by LiveATC – a
website that monitors air traffic control
recordings – and quoted by the
Associated Press, the pilot can be
heard saying: “We need to descend to
about (18,000 feet). We have an
indication that’s not correct in the
plane.”
A controller replies: “Stand by.” After a
pause, the controller tells the pilot to
fly at 25,000ft.
“We need to get lower,” the pilot
responded.
“Working on that,” the controller says.
Controllers then clear the plane to
descend to 20,000ft and the pilot
acknowledges the command.
Minutes later a controller asks the
plane to identify itself. There is no
response.
According to FlightAware, the plane
never carried out the last descent to
20,000ft.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
paid tribute to the couple.
“The Glazers were innovative and
generous people who were committed
to revitalising downtown Rochester,”
he said.
The couple’s three children said in a
statement they were “devastated”.
The US Federal Aviation
Administration said it co-operated
with Cuba air traffic control in
monitoring the plane, despite the
countries not having full diplomatic
relations for more than half a century.
Cuba said it had authorised the US
military to fly a C-130 cargo plane and
two fighter jets over its airspace to
investigate the incident. www.punchng.com/news/unresponsive-private-plane-crashes-off-jamaica-2/